The government must pay us back for our sacrifice during lockdown

THE corona crisis has shaken South Africa and our president has asked all of us to submit to a very strict and long lockdown, which pulls the rug from under the many poor people who lose their incomes. The military and police roam the streets with heavy-handed tactics.

The government asks – demands – a very big favour of its people. It is like a carrot and stick approach, but without the carrot. Where is the carrot? There should be a carrot and there could have been a carrot had the fat cats not eaten it.

For many years now the people have asked the government for simple favours: stop stealing so much money. Provide water. Provide electricity. Provide basic services, safety, hygiene, decent infrastructure.

The government has not listened. Graft is rampant and no one has yet been convicted for stealing hundreds of billions of rand. The government and public sector managers pay themselves astronomical salaries.

But now they expect us to go without income and eventually food for three weeks? That is a big sacrifice. Will the ministers and heads of parastatals donate three weeks’ worth of their salaries to fighting the disease? Of course not.

The coronavirus is a pest that must be stopped. But the government could have made it so much easier by actually attempting to fix the many self-inflicted problems that plague its people, and to be better prepared for a crisis. An image of Jake and Ace behind bars would have made life in house confinement much easier to endure for the rest of us.

And if you think of extending the lockdown past the 21 days: don’t. There will be social unrest and starvation in the poorer areas. Domestic violence is on the up, so is depression.

From historic experience, we know that more than a quarter of people in isolation suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder afterwards. So please keep social distancing and hygiene rules, maybe a continued lockdown for elderly people older than 70, but let people go back to work.Yes, Mr President: we will do you this favour. But when this is over, you must return the favour.